


untitled

by inkandchocolate



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-19
Updated: 2010-05-19
Packaged: 2017-10-09 14:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkandchocolate/pseuds/inkandchocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You think River had a reason to cut Jayne?</p>
            </blockquote>





	untitled

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Ol for the improv -- laced, shiver, tinge

After he stitched Jayne's wound, Simon found River huddled under a blanket in her bed, shivering.

"He's going to be fine," he whispered to her, sitting down and letting his hand stroke her shoulder. He could feel her bones, slender and brittle as a bird's wing, through the thin material of the shift she wore.

"He'll steal you away, take you away from me, and I'll be alone." Her voice was laced with tears and anger in equal measure, and Simon pulled her against him. He turned her around until she sat in his lap, huddled and quivering.

"All alone when they come for me," she whispered again. "And you'll be his. In the dark where it's warm and safe."

"No," he insisted. "I'll never leave you. I promise." He tilted her chin up so she could see his eyes but her own were dark and far away, and she was lost to him. Even when he kissed her, warm lips pressed to her own trembling ones, all she did was whimper and clutch him, and the heat of their bodies wasn't enough to bring her back this time. She still shook in his arms afterwards as if he were made of ice, even though his own skin felt pulled too tight. Felt shiny, and burnt, singed by the knowledge that River knew him better than he wanted to admit.


End file.
